Business

Will RIM's Battle for Survival Be Fought Overseas?

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel for Research In Motion after all. The BlackBerry maker, whose market share and revenues have been in free fall, still has hope in overseas markets, where smartphones still have a lot of room to grow.

A new study from Nielsen shows smartphone penetration in the relatively large markets of Brazil, Russia and India is still well below 50%. In the U.S., smartphone users became the majority among mobile customers in March 2012, and in November comScore reported that more than half of the population (whether they were mobile customers or not) owned a smartphone.

That's good news for RIM, who in recent years has enjoyed much more success with its BlackBerry phones abroad than in North America. Even as its market share among smartphones shrank, the company would often cite growth overseas and in emerging markets, buoyed by its phones' relatively cheap data plans and popular BlackBerry Messenger network.

At the end of the month, RIM will finally have its big coming-out party for BlackBerry 10, the mobile platform it hopes will breathe new life into the company. If RIM can keep prices down for both the phones and data plans — especially in those large markets cited in the Nielsen study — it may still be able to cultivate many new customers.

The market with the most potential is India, the second-most populous country on Earth with 1.2 billion people, where a massive 80% of mobile customers are still using feature phones. Although RIM has had problems dealing with the Indian government over access to enterprise-encrypted email (which infamously led to one of its former CEOs storming out of a BBC interview), Indian wireless providers are reportedly gearing up for BlackBerry 10.

Overseas markets could be where RIM's battle for survival is won or lost. Apple's iOS and Android have been eating up its market share for years, but RIM still sells a significant number of phones in many countries (a study from August 2012 showed BlackBerrys accounted for almost 10% of sales in the U.K., to 1.5% in the U.S.).

However, those numbers are in rapid decline as well. Will BlackBerry 10 be enough to reverse the company's slide? It may be too late to win back the U.S., but places like Brazil — where only about a third of the population owns a smartphone — RIM may find a more level playing field.

RIM's stock price has been climbing steadily over the past few months, despite its poor earnings report that saw the company's first net loss of subscribers ever.

Are you optimistic about RIM's future? Let us know in the comments.

BONUS: A Tour of BlackBerry 10

RIM Shows Off More of BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry 10 Lock Screen

You unlock a BlackBerry 10 device by swiping up from the bottom of the screen.

Swipe Up to Unlock

When you swipe up, the lock screen dissolves into the home screen on the device.

Swipe to Change Screens

Swiping to the side brings up additional pages of apps.

Tap to Change Pages

You can also navigate through pages of apps by tapping on the scroll bar on the bottom of the screen.

Active Frames

Taking a page from Windows Phone, RIM is adding “Active Frames” to BB10. Much like the "Live Tiles” found in Windows Phone, the frames update with information you can see at a glance. For instance, the weather app will show the current temperature as well as a 7-day forecast, the calendar app shows your next event for the day.

Swipe for BlackBerry Hub

BlackBerry Hub can be accessed by swiping across the screen.

Contacts

New Groups

RIM is taking the look and feel of its home screen and bringing it into groups. Active frames make an appearance in groups, allowing you to see chats pertaining to a particular group, people who are a part of the group, and photos that have been uploaded. Pictures change as they are uploaded to the group, so if someone uploads a new one then that image will change on the group's page.

Contacts Are Accessible From Groups

Tapping on a person in a group will bring up his or her contact card.

Pick a Focus Point

Taking photos in BlackBerry 10 starts out much like taking photos with any other OS, with the ability to tap on any portion of the photo to focus on a specific portion of the frame.

Adjust Your Photo

If a photo you take is blurry, or someone in the picture has his or her eyes closed, you can use the scroll bar on the bottom of the screen to move forward and backward in time to capture the perfect shot.

Adjust Individual Faces

Much like you can adjust a whole picture, you can also pic out individual faces in a photo to adjust. So, if one friend has her eyes closed in a picture, you can just adjust herface in the photo.

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